Vice Premier Shimon Peres is preparing to go to Moscow, probably next month, and Israelis are agog.
His associates are treating the upcoming trip, at the invitation of the Soviet Peace Committee, as a major milestone toward the normalization of relations between Israel and the Soviet Union.
Peres himself is practicing Russian phrases.
His political aide, Nimrod Novik, left Sunday for Moscow to prepare the groundwork for the visit, He is stopping off in Vienna to pick up his Soviet visa.
As No. 2 man in the coalition government, minister of finance and leader of the Labor Party, Peres would be the highest-ranking Israeli official to visit the Soviet Union since the Kremlin severed diplomatic relations with Israel at the time of the 1967 Six-Day War.
The Israeli news media assume that Peres is seeking a meeting with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Some say he would not be going to Moscow if such a meeting were not arranged.
Though the invitation came from an ostensibly non-governmental body, references in the official Soviet news media indicate it was issued on the highest authority and is being warmly encouraged by the Kremlin.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
